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SCE equipment ignited nearly 60% more fires in 2024

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SCE being sued over Eaton Canyon blaze, no cause

determined yet

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SCE partly blames weather for increased fire ignitions

By Tim McLaughlin

Feb 13 - Southern California Edison's equipment ignited

nearly 60% more fires in 2024 than in the previous year, mainly

tiny ones that were quickly extinguished, as the utility battled

to prevent catastrophe in the months leading up to the Los

Angeles wildfires.

The escalation of fire ignitions in SCE's territory,

disclosed this month by the utility in a quarterly filing for

regulators, preceded multiple wildfires that devastated

metropolitan Los Angeles at the start of this year.

SCE, a unit of Edison International ( EIX ), faces multiple

lawsuits blaming its equipment for starting the Eaton Canyon

blaze, one of the major wildfires. No official cause has been

determined. SCE has said it does not know what caused the fire.

SCE's ignition reports reveal an escalating number of

incidents throughout 2024, especially in districts where the

fire threat is high.

SCE reported 135 fire ignition events in its territory

during 2024, up from 86 in 2023, according to the SCE data

released this month. Of those totals, there were 35 events in

high-fire threat districts in 2024, up from 19 in the previous

year.

SCE said low humidity, dry vegetation and high winds were

among the factors that boosted fire ignition events in 2024.

"We are concerned when we have all three," SCE spokesperson

David Eisenhauer said. "Weather was definitely one of those

factors outside the utility's control."

Fire ignition events typically include equipment failures,

wire-to-wire contact, lightning strikes in high-fire threat

zones and wire contact with dried out vegetation and balloons,

according to SCE's reports.

Over the past decade, fire ignitions from SCE equipment in

its territory have averaged about 120 a year, SCE data showed.

Utilities must report ignitions to the California Public

Utility Commission when their equipment is involved and the

resulting fire spreads more than one meter. The fires are

usually small and extinguished with no serious damage.

The Eaton Canyon fire scorched about 14,000 acres, and

Jefferies analyst Paul Zimbardo estimates the damage it caused

will cost about $22 billion before any settlement discounts.

Reducing fire ignition events is part of the calculation for

determining annual performance incentives for senior executives

at Edison International ( EIX ), according to proxy statements filed

with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Fewer fire ignitions in 2023, for example, helped EIX Chief

Executive Pedro Pizarro achieve a $1.85 million cash bonus that

year.

As power demand escalates and wild weather events grow more

frequent in California, SCE is racing to replace and upgrade

transmission lines, towers and other equipment that could spark

a fire in a territory parched by severe drought. It must play

catch-up because of rising infrastructure failure rates as

equipment becomes obsolete, according to SCE executive testimony

before California's Public Utility Commission.

"The combination of age, obsolescence, and limiting designs

that do not meet current standards leads to a higher probability

of safety incidents and outages, as well as longer outages when

they do occur," SCE said in CPUC filings.

For example, SCE cited more than 1,000 downed-wire incidents

in 2022, and 43 explosions associated with underground

equipment.

In a letter to the CPUC earlier this month, SCE acknowledged

the Los Angeles Fire Department suspects the utility's equipment

caused the Hurst Fire, which burned about 800 acres in January.

Fire officials said that fire appeared to have started near

an SCE tower holding high-voltage transmission lines that fell

to the ground.

(Editing by David Gregorio)